AI Readiness: A CEO Mandate
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The business world is buzzing with discussions about the transformational potential of AI and advancements in the capabilities of LLMs. Breakthrough innovations are making headlines almost daily – models are getting better and cheaper at a rapid pace. A 2025 survey of Fortune 1000 and global AI and data executives found that 98.4 percent of these organizations are increasing their investments in AI and data.
There is much discussion in corporate boardrooms about how companies can derive maximum value from AI innovations and what the strategic investments for AI should be, with technology investments, risks and use cases being the dominant topics. This was the subject of a November 2023 fireside chat that I participated in at the National Association of Corporate Directors (NACD) in New York.
I recently spoke with my industry colleague Vipin Gopal, a pioneering leader in data and AI adoption within industry, about the challenges that organizations face and the steps they must take to enable AI readiness. Gopal is a longtime senior industry executive, who served as chief data and analytics officer for Eli Lilly and at Walgreens Boots Alliance, and previously served as senior vice president of analytics at Humana. Early in his career, he held data and analytics leadership roles with CIGNA and United Technologies, after completing his PhD at Carnegie Mellon University. He also serves on the Board of Directors of Concentra.
Gopal comments, “It’s tempting to think that investing in AI tools and technologies alone will take care of business. It does not.” He continues, “There is a critical piece of the AI puzzle that often goes overlooked: evolving the company culture to thrive in an AI-driven world and upskilling the entire company employee base.” The 2025 survey reported that 91.2 percent of the organizations surveyed found that cultural obstacles and resistance to change were greater barriers to adoption of AI than technology gaps or limitations.
AI capabilities are abundant. “A lack of organizational readiness is the greatest challenge that organizations face today”, says Gopal. It is notable that in the survey, only 37.3 percent of organizations report having created a Data and AI-driven organization, and just 32.5 percent have established a data and AI-driven organizational culture.
Questions that CEOs should ask
It is Gopal’s perspective that in his experience, organizations benefit most when CEOs directly lead the charge to drive this cultural transformation, given its critical importance. He emphasizes, “People are the key to enabling organizational change.” With 89 percent of companies believing that AI is likely to be the most transformative technology in a generation, the winners in the AI era will be those that invest in people and culture.
Even with the daily discussion of AI transformation in organizations, just 23.9 percent of companies report that AI capabilities have been implemented into production at-scale. While this is a notable improvement over the 4.9 percent that achieved this milestone in 2024, considerable work and effort remains to be completed for most organizations.
When CEOs ask the question, “Is my company AI-ready?” the answer lies not just in your company’s technology stack, but in your people. Gopal suggests that organizations need to consider these critical business questions.
Do your employees know how to use GenAI tools effectively in their daily work?
Can your employee teams select the right AI tools for different tasks?
Are your business leaders educated enough about AI to make smart investments?
Are you building a culture where continuous learning of AI is part of everyone’s job?
Are your employees trained in the ethical and responsible use of AI tools?
Are your AI and data investments tied to delivering measurable business value?
Do you have the support and partnership of business leaders throughout your organization?
Gopal comments, “If you’re not confidently answering “yes” to these questions, you’re not AI-ready — yet.” He continues, “To truly unlock the value of AI, companies must teach their workforce how to use AI effectively. The most successful organizations will be those that recognize AI is not just a technology initiative — it is a company-wide capability that demands new skills for every employee.” Today, just 18.1 percent of organizations report that they are delivering a high degree of measurable and transformational business value from their AI and data investments.
In our collective journeys covering and leading functions at Fortune 1000 companies, Gopal and I have had one consistent observation – to fully capture the value of technological advancements, cultural and workforce readiness is equally, if not more, important than technology readiness.
AI’s Immediate Impact: Boosting Employee Productivity through Augmentation
The biggest immediate impact of AI isn’t future moonshots — it’s today’s productivity gains – gains that result when AI is used to augment human capabilities and take mundane work off the plate of employees. Of the organizations surveyed, 57.5 percent believe that achieving exponential productivity gains and efficiencies will be the greatest value resulting from adoption of AI.
It is estimated in recent reports that GenAI’s impact on productivity could add trillions of dollars to global GDP, with AI tools having the potential to automate work activities that absorb 60-70% percent of employees’ time – significantly reshaping the cost and speed of business operations. From summarizing research to drafting marketing content, to automating customer service responses, AI can dramatically augment human capabilities.
Gopal comments, “These productivity gains will fully happen only if employees are trained to use AI technologies appropriately, and if companies are intentional about training programs.” He continues, “Employees should be skilled at thinking and working better with AI on their side. Employees need to learn how to integrate AI into their workflows, not just be a spectator from afar.” Gopal adds, “The intent is certainly not to upskill everyone to be a data scientist – they don’t need to understand the intricacies of the AI black box, but they do need to know how to use AI, when to trust it and when to verify. It is imperative that companies invest in AI up-skilling to make themselves and their employees future-ready.”
Biggest Upskilling Challenge of This Era
“Teaching an entire workforce how to work alongside AI is arguably the biggest upskilling challenge companies have faced in decades,” says Gopal. “It requires a new mindset of continuous learning: one that sees AI not as a threat, but as a powerful partner. But with that challenge comes a massive opportunity: organizations that act now will outcompete, out-innovate, and outperform those that don’t.”
Gopal believes that companies need a structured approach to AI readiness that involves assessing current skills, defining clear learning pathways, and continuously updating training programs to keep pace with technological advancements. He notes that the GenAI ecosystem is exploding with specialized tools: text generators, image creators, coding copilots, workflow automation platforms — with more to come. Gopal comments, “Upskilling isn’t just about basic AI literacy anymore. Effective upskilling programs must go beyond generic training and help employees understand tool selection, prompt engineering, verification of AI outputs, and responsible AI use practices. Upskilling in AI isn’t a nice-to-have. It’s a core skillset of the future.”
Senior Business Leaders Must Be Role Models
To enable success, AI upskilling must happen at every level, starting at the top. Business leaders must do more than talk about AI — they must lead by example. Gopal comments, “Senior business leaders themselves must invest the time to learn about AI — not just at a high-level, but with a deep enough understanding of AI technologies, risks and opportunities, to make smarter, faster business decisions.” He adds, “Even more importantly, leaders who visibly engage in their own AI education set the tone for the entire organization, signaling that AI, and related upskilling, is a strategic priority.”
Based upon our view of an AI future, Gopal and I share the perspective that every business role will change, with senior leadership roles being no exception. We recommend a series of actions for C-level leaders to enable an AI-driven culture and unlock business value:
CEOs must champion the development of an AI-driven culture. CEOs and their direct reports must commit to continuously learn about AI advancements and championing adoption across the organization. They must serve as role models for AI usage in their respective areas, encouraging their teams to integrate AI into a wide range of contexts—including strategic planning, budgeting, talent management, and overall decision-making. The executive team must challenge program plans and budgets with the question ‘which tasks of this program can be accomplished with AI’, hiring decisions with ‘how much of these jobs can be done with AI bots’, and broadly decision making with “what are AI tools telling us to ensure we are making the best possible decisions”.
Chief Human Resource Officers (CHROs) must embed AI capabilities into talent management. In the AI era, individuals who effectively leverage AI tools will outperform those who do not. CHROs have a responsibility to equip every employee with the skills to use AI to enhance their efficiency and effectiveness. This includes developing structured upskilling programs—such as internal academies or external partnerships—to support rapid learning in this fast-evolving field. Authors, having sponsored data, analytics and AI upskilling programs, have seen first-hand their multiplicative effect in cultural evolution. CHROs must also embrace an expanded definition of talent: human employees working in collaboration with AI agents. Importantly, recruiting for key leadership roles should include a focus on AI fluency and capability—the “AI muscle.”
Chief Legal and Compliance Officers must guide ethical use of AI in the company.
They must lead the development of policies and governance processes that address emerging ethical challenges such as algorithmic bias, data privacy, transparency, and explainability. Their guidance is critical in ensuring AI is used in a compliant, fair, and trustworthy manner.
CIOs, or equivalents, must enable the foundations for scalable AI.
As AI becomes central to business strategy, CIOs must evolve beyond traditional technology management and lead the charge for enabling agile, scalable platforms that support rapid experimentation and deployment of AI across the enterprise. Technology leaders who fail to up-skill and stay current with their knowledge of AI risk becoming obsolete and ineffective in driving business outcomes. We expect to see a new breed of CIO—or equivalent technology leader—who is proficient in AI—emerging in organizations.
The mandate of other conventional CxO roles will also evolve with AI. For example, Chief Operating Officers must champion the integration of AI to drive significant operational efficiencies, while CFOs must leverage AI to improve financial decision-making and inform investment strategy.
Companies That Invest in People Will Win
It may sound paradoxical – companies that win in the AI era, will be the ones who invest in people. Gopal notes, “AI will reshape every job of the future – companies and employees need to be prepared for what is on the horizon.” Change will not occur overnight, but organizations and leaders must act now to prepare for an inevitable future.
The companies that commit early and deeply to employee up-skilling will be the ones that thrive in the AI-driven future. They will innovate faster, operate more efficiently, and attract top talent who want to work for forward-thinking organizations. Gopal concludes, “The future won’t be won by those who just have the best AI technology and tools — it will be won by those who know how to use them best.”